The summer of 2010 might go down as a dismal one for most farmers, but for fungus, it was a fantastic year.
The disease types and affected crops were different in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, but the impact was the same.
Producers spent more time scouting fields and more money on fungicide and they will need to be more vigilant in future years.
Manitoba
In most years, fusarium head blight isn’t a concern for winter wheat growers. But high humidity and frequent rain during the flowering period caused extremely high levels in winter wheat this year, especially in the eastern part of Manitoba.
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According to Agriculture Canada’s Cereal Research Centre in Winnipeg, the FHB index, which measures the number of heads affected and the severity of infection on each head, in winter wheat was 11.8 in Manitoba in 2010, the second highest since surveys began in 1998. The highest was 14.7, a record set in 2005.
In a normal year, the FHB index in Manitoba’s winter wheat crop is usually about one to two percent, said Brent McCallum, a plant pathologist at the Cereal Research Centre.
The FHB index was 18.4 in the eastern and Interlake regions of Manitoba, but the disease wasn’t a problem in winter wheat in the southwestern part, where the FHB index was 0.4.
As for Manitoba’s spring wheat crop, it appears that FHB resistant varieties and extensive use of foliar fungicide kept fusarium under control.
Results of the Cereal Research Centre’s survey show that the FHB index was only 1.72 in spring wheat across Manitoba.
Saskatchewan
The take home message from 2010 is that disease can flourish if producers shorten their crop rotations, said Faye Dokken-Bouchard, a plant disease specialist with Saskatchewan Agriculture.
“Proper rotation is really important because you never know when you’re going to get a year like this where you have the perfect conditions for disease,” said Dokken-Bouchard.
“We know that farmers in certain areas are shortening their lentil rotations…. Those short rotations do build up the inoculum in the soil.”
Mould in most pulse crops, especially lentils, was one of the primary disease issues in 2010, she said. Stemphylium blight and sclerotinia hammered lentils this year in Saskatchewan and mycosphaerella blight affected the province’s pea crop.
Dokken-Bouchard said results of surveys for fusarium in spring wheat crops will be released later this year.
Alberta
In his long tenure with Alberta Agriculture, pathologist Ron Howard has seen nearly everything when it comes to plant disease.
“Sclerotinia I can tell you was up this year on everything,” he said.
“The big surprise was to see it on lentils. In my 35 years here with Alberta Agriculture, I’ve never seen this as a severe disease in lentils. But this year it was.”
The presence of sclerotinia shocked many producers as well, because lentils are known as a trouble free crop, he said.
Looking ahead to next year and beyond, pulse growers will need to remember what happened in 2010.
“Some of these diseases that are there, in low levels or background levels, can suddenly multiply and become serious,” Howard said.
“They can move into crops that we don’t traditionally consider them to be a threat to.”
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Canadian crop production:(000 tonnes) 2009 2010
All wheat 26,847.6 22,204.8
Spring wheat 18,452.1 16,494.2 Durum
Winter wheat
Corn for grain
Canola
Barley
Dry peas
Oats
5,399.6 3,043.5
2,995.9 2,667.1
9,561.2 10,864.9
12,417.4 10,430.2
9,517.2 8,258.6
3,379.4 2,777.7
2,906.1 2,320.6
